No. 17: 1971
Our series counting down the Top 30 North Carolina basketball teams of all time continues.
Our mission isn't to make any declarative statements, but rather have some fun, give our readers something to discuss, walk down memory lane some and provide a needed escape.
Your thoughts and picks are welcome in our message board thread for this series.
No. 17: 1971
Record: 28-6 (11-3)
Postseason: NIT champions
ACC Tournament: Lost in finals
Ranking: 13
Coach: Dean Smith
All-Americans: None.
All-ACC: Dennis Wuycik (1st); George Karl (2nd).
Honors: Dean Smith, ACC Coach of the Year; Bill Chamberlain, NIT MVP.
What's To Know: When was the only time UNC played Duke in a national postseason tournament? The answer is the 1971 NIT. The Tar Heels and Blue Devils would have met for the 1991 national championship if Dean Smith's team wasn't upset by Roy Williams' third Kansas club in the Final Four. Otherwise, the teams have never been so close to meeting in the postseason, which is why as each year passes the 1971 contest takes on a more unique meaning.
It doesn't reflect the quality of that UNC team, which is what this ranking series is all about, but it's fascinating, nonetheless. The meeting occurred in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden with a meeting versus Georgia Tech in the title game at stake. For the record, the Yellow Jackets were an Independent at the time, they wouldn't join the ACC for eight more years.
ALso note that Tech turned down an invitation to the NCAA Tournament that year on a player vote becuase they wanted to play in Madison Square Garden instead of some remote college town, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in 2017. So the Jackets were an NCAA-caliber team that season.
An NIT title in 1971 carried far greater meaning than it does today. The NCAA Tournament field comprised just 25 teams at the time while the NIT selected the next best 16 clubs, nine of which were ranked during the 1970-71 season, six of which were ranked in the last weeks of the regular season, including the Tar Heels, who were at No. 13 when the postseason began.
Carolina could certainly score. Four Heels averaged in double figures led by Dennis Wuycik's 18.4 points per game - and shot 52.2 percent from the field. But when the Heels struggled defensively, they weren’t near Smith’s standard. In three of their losses they surrendered 105, 96 and 92 points, though they gave up just 52 in their final defeat, a one-point game versus South Carolina in the ACC championship in the Gamecocks' final game in the ACC.
Thus, Carolina didn't get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, but it cruised through four victories to capture the NIT crushing Massachusetts by 41 points in Julius Erving's final college game, Providence by seven, the Blue Devils by six and then Georgia Tech in the finals by 18 points led by NIT MVP Bill Chamberlain's 34 points and 10 rebounds.
1971 NBA Draft
Lee Dedmond, 5th Round, No. 62 overall selection